METHOD OF OPERATING FAST NEUTRON REACTOR WITH NITRIDE FUEL AND LIQUID METAL COOLANT Russian patent published in 2013 - IPC G21C1/02 

FIELD: physics.

SUBSTANCE: method of operating a nuclear reactor is carried out in a closed fuel cycle with switch over several lifetimes to operating on uranium-plutonium nitride fuel in equilibrium mode. The starting load fuel used is uranium nitride enriched to 12.5-14%, to which neptunium is added in amount of 1.5-3% of the mass of heavy fuel atoms. The enriched uranium nitride contains the ¹⁵N isotope in amount of at least 80% of the total amount of nitrogen. In each subsequent load, content of the ¹⁵N isotope in the nitride of the fuel mixture is reduced by 10-30% compared to the previous amount until achieving its natural value.

EFFECT: reducing the mass of the loaded fuel at start to the mass of the uranium-plutonium fuel of the equilibrium composition, which enables to avoid correcting the critical mass of fuel during the transition period.

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